An ’87 Lincoln Continental bustleback was a completely unexpected find, street-parked just one block away from the Lake Shore Campus of Loyola University. This northern section of what’s commonly known as the Winthrop-Kenmore corridor that runs north-south between the Uptown and Edgewater districts of Chicago is plentiful with four-story, midcentury residential buildings, many of which have been purchased by the university and are used as student housing. In the two city blocks just south of the main campus, there are still some apartment and condo buildings that are not affiliated directly with the university. I’m sure that some non-student members of the Edgewater community live there, but when fall arrives, there are often banners on some of them that advertise “Off-Campus Housing!”
From what I understand from a friend who had attended years ago, Loyola is not an inexpensive school, but that doesn’t mean that the streets in and around that immediate area don’t have their share of beaters parked at the curb. The most common type of student car in this area would be, say, a twenty-year-old Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic that runs really well, but is now in the hands of someone as old as the car, who isn’t particularly devoted to keeping it in pristine condition. Examples of those two cars will run forever, and as such are exactly what I’d want my hypothetical college-aged kid to have… that is, if I would allow them to have a car at all during freshman year. Unlike in this part of Chicago, neither university I had attended had comprehensive, inexpensive, twenty-four hour public transportation at my disposal, nor a Target department store or Aldi supermarket within ten minutes walking distance. These Loyola students have it made.
Still, there are many times when access to a vehicle is essential for a young college attendee, particularly when it’s time to move at the beginning or end of the semester. There will also be occasions when one might want to get away for the weekend, or even drive home to see Mom and/or Dad. I get it. The reason this Continental caught me off guard was because given its location basically across the street from the southern edge of campus, I presumed it to belong to one of the students, and if so, it seems like a very atypical choice, if in fact any choice was involved. Even if the hypothetical owner was a twenty-year-old currently toward the end of his or her studies at Loyola, this Continental, a final-year example of this generation, was already something like fifteen years old when said student was born.
I remember there being some older cars on campus when I was a college student, but they were more of the “ironic” type, like a bright yellow Ford Maverick that was close to twenty-years old at the time. My friend Andy had a big, old, blue Oldsmobile from the early ’80s that we all called the “Blooptie”. In both of these examples, though, the cars were as old as we were, and sometimes a little younger, but certainly not older. This imperfect Lincoln is now thirty-five years old, which makes it positively geriatric as weekend transportation for a college student. There’s got to be backstory.
Parent: “You really want a car? You have to have a car? You ‘need’ a car? Fine. You can have Aunt Gert’s Lincoln. She just gave up her license and won’t be driving anymore.”
Kid: “But I hate that thing!”
P: “Take public transit. What do you need a car for in Chicago, anyway? It’s the Lincoln or nothing.”
K: “Fine, whatever. I’ll take it.”
P: “And you’re going to thank her for it, and you have to mean it, and with real gratitude. With love and kisses.”
K: “Hhhhhhh…” (The loud sigh may or may not be accompanied by an epic eyeroll.)
Eighty-seven capped the six-year run of this generation of Continental, which began for ’82 and was based on Ford’s rear-drive Fox platform. All ’87 Lincolns were powered by one of two versions of Ford’s 5.0-liter V8, with most of them having the fuel-injected, 150-horsepower version, with the Mark VII LSC being the exclusive recipient of the high-output, port-injected, 200-hp mill. Antilock brakes, optional for ’85, became standard equipment for ’86. This ’87 Continental base model was one of just under 17,600 built for the model year, with a starting price of $26,400, or about $68,900 in 2022. An upmarket Givenchy edition sold for $2,500 ($6,500) more.
A new, front-wheel-drive Continental with a proper-looking notchback profile and slick, aerodynamic styling in the vein of the Ford Taurus on which it was based would arrive for ’88, and would more than double the sales of its predecessor, at 41,300 units. Base prices for the ’88 actually decreased slightly, by 1% on the base model, and 3% on the renamed, upmarket “Signature” version. Perhaps this was the savings from Ford no longer needing to license the Givenchy name being passed down to the customer.
What struck me the most when looking at this car and its immediate surroundings was how both the styling and smaller size of these Fox-platform Continentals, as well as the slightly bizarre, space-age angles, curves, and architectural elements of the midcentury residential buildings in the background, had originally signified a new wave of the future. I love this style of architecture and anything Googie, and I photograph examples of it every chance I get, especially given how many things have changed in this neighborhood and city since I had originally moved here close to two decades ago.
This Lincoln is of a much more manageable size and with much less rusty perforation than a different Continental I had photographed only a couple of blocks away from this very intersection, almost a decade ago. Here’s hoping that the presumed student who owns this one appreciates riding in something cushy that isn’t a Corolla or Civic. At the very least, his or her parents should take comfort in the safety of this Continental’s ABS. Along with the absence of fear of this car’s theft, that’s also one less thing to worry about.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Wednesday, August 17, 2022.
Thanks for a great morning read, Joseph. As always, it was great!
I actually am a fan of these fox based Continentals. But to me, the restyle kind of ruined the sharpness of them. I prefer the first editions, as the grill, headlamps, lower bodyside moldings and bumper extensions looked much better and gave the car a more elegant look.
I would of enjoyed having something like this to drive around in when I was in college. And I would have loved living in that cool looking building that this is parked in front of!
The interior was better on the early ones too, with nicer upholstery on less fussily-stitched seats, and wood paneling that actually looked like wood (can’t remember if it was real or not).
Thank you so much. I’ll say this about old luxury cars. My older brother was a young professor in his late 20s when he owned an Olds 98 Regency from the early ’80s. He used to extol the benefits of how amazingly smooth and comfortable it was compared to little economy cars, and I used to crack on him and that car… that is, before I rode in it. It was almost like a reverse-status symbol for someone in his then-age group, but there was no denying it was way, way more comfortable than anything his peers were driving. It was then that I was sold on the brougham, ironically enough by one of the hippest guys I knew.
I liked the 2 tone on the early ones, or at least I think it was only used on the early ones(if not it was more common anyway) These later ones arent bad but the “aero” restyle made it looked like a transitional design where the original seemed competently cohesive to the look it was after.
I don’t remember the interior seeming all that downgraded on the later ones, my firsthand observations of them is mostly the aero cars and I thought it looked nice, and the same as the early ones. I like the dash design, it looks strikingly similar to 68-70 Dodge/Plymouth B body dashboards
I too am an admirer of this era of Continental although I prefer the later aero nose. It pulled off the bustle back the best of the three. Today a person unfamiliar with the Seville and Imperial of that era could gaze upon the Lincoln and simply see a ratty old sedan. An Imperial or Seville would still appear odd. These Lincolns weren’t good cars at all to own and the luxury car market had begun to move on to BMW and Mercedes in a big way. If Ford had really been invested and build these with a German style platform and Japanese build quality and reliability we’d have a funny looking Lexus that still failed but would really be worth preserving. Alas, this survivor will simply get qbused used up.
I can really appreciate that the camps on these Lincolns seem evenly divided between before and after the restyle. I can see the merits of both.
When you mention these not being good cars, I just now remembered the air suspension and seeing many of them appearing to sag in the back from the deflated units. This one didn’t have that problem. I suppose someone else in the know about those hydraulics could chip in, but this one seemed to be sitting completely level at the curb.
My opinion on these may have swerved more wildly than on almost anything of its era. My father bought a lightly used 84 at a bit over a year old. I was driving my new Golf GTI at the time and absolutely detested everything about that Lincoln. I hated the styling, hated the interior kitsch, hated the soft, floaty, pitchy suspension, and everything else about it.
Today I have spun 180 degrees and would rock one of these, loving every part of it. The 5.0 in a Fox platform is a winner no matter what the sheetmetal looks like, and the styling is oddball enough to satisfy the quirky part of my nature. I see nothing but wonderfulness here (except this particular car’s condition).
I’m thinking hard to find two cars that might be more diametrically opposed than your Golf GTI and one of these slantback Connies. (My brain is still clocking…)
I think part of what I appreciate about these now is that there survival rate seems to have been so low. It’s like every time I see one, or come across old pictures I had taken of one (like the one I had written about this past February), I find something new I like about them just by dint of their rarity.
There is a resemblance to the 1982 Le Baron, but I don’t think this is the look Lincoln was going for.
I can sort of see the grille from this one echoing that of that of the ’86 LeBaron, in that they both have a basic, rounded-radiator shape. I can see it from the front.
Out of curiosity, I looked at the base prices of the ’82 Continental against that of the ’82 Chrysler LeBaron, and even if the LeBaron was technically a subcompact and the Continental a midsize car, the base Lincoln was about twice the price of the LeBaron convertible.
My student daughter has finally seen the light and accepted a 20 year old Corolla offered by her aunt to replace her Xsara, I offered her a good Sentra as an option but she had become addicted to the turbo boost of the Citroen and the handling so refused,
I tried to tell her if the Citroen broke getting it fixed wouldnt be easy or cheap and if a Nissan broke anyone could fix it and the parts are under every tree, but teens know everything and anything that had gone wrong before was just fixed in the driveway, now reality has kicked in and living 7 hours from the old man and his tools means a two lady owner Corolla is a better bet than a hard driven Citroen diesel
The wisdom of taking the more conventional, reliable car over the cool one. A lesson I’d also have to learn at some point. Honestly, Bryce, if I absolutely needed to own a car today for regular transportation (which I don’t), a 20-year old Corolla would probably be toward the top of my list. Absolutely.
I’ve always loved the 1982 to 1987 Continentals, with a slight preference to the early ones. Having grown up on a farm and driving lots of diesel powered things, I’ve also been a fan of the diesel cars from the late 70’s and early 80’s. I’ve owned several of the big GM cars with them and loved them all. So in the early 90’s, I thought how fun it would be to find a Lincoln with the short-lived diesel. I did a lot or research and found that the diesel used was from the BMW and it was highly recommended that I avoid them at all costs. I did find one finally in a nice darker red with velour seats and low miles, but the price at that time kept me from buying it. Probably for the best as I’ve never read anything good about the Conti or Mark with that diesel. After that, my desire just dropped off and I moved on. But I’d still pick up a nice example of this car if the right opportunity came along and with the 5.0L.
Wow. You’ve just sent me down the path of researching the diesel Continental of this generation. I’m surprised that it never came up when I was researching a few facts for this essay, but I certainly remember them being in existence. Agree that the five-liter would be the only way to fly.
Sometimes the best car is the best car you can get. For a college student who is already paying for off campus housing, has to park on the street, and likely doesn’t drive that much, this seems like it would work. At least that’s what I’d tell my kid; and if I had ready access to a free 35 year old Lincoln that had maybe another couple of years left on it before the rust got totally out of hand, it’d be the car he’d get. I wouldn’t even care too much if he let it get backed into by some kind of delivery van (street parking after all). I might suggest a couple of sheet metal screws to put that front plate back on.
Anyway, you can carry a lot more of your friends and your stuff in that Continental than in a Corolla or old Accord. That’s kind of a 6 of 1, half dozen of another situation though.
Just don’t drive at night, eh! At least three of this Lincoln’s headlamps no longer have reflectors; the fourth—the outboard driver’s side one—looks marginal at best.
Wisdom, Jeff! Especially with tuition costing what it does today (sorry if that triggers anyone), it would make sense not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Get that degree, make that money, and then worry about driving something nice. Unfortunately, that’s not how my mind worked as a freshly-minted adult. I don’t think I stopped caring about being “cool” until I was well into my thirties. Maybe later.
I imagine keeping one of these alive is relatively easy since much of what’s underneath it is shared with a 5.0 Fox body Mustang. I also know how some parts, like the entire dashboard, can be interchanged with other Fox platform cars, which gets me wondering how much of the Lincoln interior could be transplanted into a Mustang with some work. A Mustang with luxurious bench seats and a Lincoln dash would be cool, just because. Ford themselves put an ’80-82 Thunderbird dashboard into the ’83-86 LTD, which was essentially a Fairmont (or ’81-82 Granada) both which used the same basic dash as Fox Mustangs until the 1987 facelift. The later SN-95 Mustang twin-pod dash fits in a Foxtang too if you snip away at the top some to make it fit under a more upright windshield; I’ve seen it done.
There were certainly people driving cars older than themselves when I went to university, like my roommate’s Plymouth GTX or Belvedere or whatever their version of the classic Dodge Charger was called. A plain one with dog-dish hubcaps, bench seat, and I assume a slant 6 or at best a 318 under the hood. Those were still cheap cars back then. When I went to high school in the early ’80s, a ’68-’72 GM A body coupe was the quintessential affordable used car for young people. The hot muscle-car variants were already rising in value, but a basic one like a Pontiac LeMans hardtop with a small engine was a $400 used car. I wouldn’t have dreamt these would ever become seriously collectible; they were *everywhere* back then, GM sold millions of them; they were as common as 10-15 year old Corollas and Civics put together are now.
I absolutely love the idea of piecing together a latter-day Fox-platform Mustang “Ghia” with a few select parts from one of these Continentals, including the cushy seats. I’m on board with that idea, and really had no clue that so many Fox parts were that interchangeable.
But, yeah. A late-’60s / early-’70s LeMans hardtop with a modest engine being a cheap used car in good condition at one time is something that will probably always blow the minds of people my age. Even by the time I was in high school (late-’80s / early-’90s), bad examples of those A-bodies were already cost-prohibitive.
Lincoln Continental on a Fox platform, how low can you go. Talk about scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Parts bin Lincoln. Throw on the bustle butt and you have designed a car that few people would buy. I’d rather drive the original, a Fairmont 4dr sedan.
Still better suited than a New Yorker 5th Avenue or Imperial on a K platform
I’m a fan of those New Yorker Fifth Avenues… stay tuned! 🙂
I am too actually, though the basic K-car suspension and arguably their narrow width and proportions worked against them. But the 3.3/3.8L V6 backed with the 4 speed transmission was much nicer than the original K drivetrains, and their interior looked and felt posh and was the nicest interior of the K variants (and better than most of its competition, imports included).
I prefer them to the ’85-90 GM C bodies; the 91-96 Park Avenue is tougher competition though.
These are really not my style, but I particularly liked the interior and dash, one of my friends in HS’s parents had one of these, very nice but had a major engine problem that sidelined it.
Also ABS was not standard across the Lincoln lineup in ’87, the Towncar did not have it and I don’t believe it could’ve had ABS until 1990.
Ryan, thanks – you’re right about the ABS. My source on that (Encyclopedia of American Cars, 2002 edition) read: “A noteworthy mechanical development was an antilock braking system (ABS), a 1985 option that became standard equipment for all Lincolns the following year.”
The Town Car didn’t get ABS until later, so I’ll fix the text. I’m sure the people at Consumer Guide must have done the same on later editions of the encyclopedia. Thanks for the catch.
The Fox based Continental was a superior car to its trouble prone Taurus based successor with the 3.8L V6.
When I was growing up, our elderly across-the-street-and-down-two-houses neighbours bought one of these ’87 Continentals with the 302. By ’92 or so it was running filthy rich when cold; big clouds of black smoke billowed behind it as Mr. and Mrs. Irvin backed it out their garage and up or down the street. It carried on that way for the couple more years as I saw it before going off to school, surely cooking the cat(s), I think for two reasons: the problem stopped when the engine warmed up—no black smoke when I saw them coming back from wherever they’d been—and they were both old enough to have spent most of their lives in times when some cars smoked, and that was just the way it was.
That last sentence has me thinking about the turning point at which cars were expected to last only so long before they deteriorated. There seems to have been a curve. What was the time bracket during which peak longevity was designed into cars? They seem to be back to being unusable / semi-disposable after they age and the expensive technology makes it cost-prohibitive to fix once it breaks or a collision occurs.
…but the average age of a car on U.S. roads is at an all-time high of over 12 years. Still climbing, too. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to that curve as EVs become more prevalent; perhaps it’ll start looking like the smartphone age curve.
These are good cars. Weird looking, but good. All Fox bodies with 5.0s are winners in my book.
At a time when it looked like this size vehicle was the biggest vehicle class for US markets, these intermediate luxury cars had what was appealing in full sized brougham rides in a smaller, more manageable vehicle. It is kind of amazing how nice these smaller luxury cars emulated their bigger siblings. They weren’t BMW, or Lexus, they were Lincolns.
What I specifically like was that it was a smaller version of the brougham versions popular over the previous decade. So, it was a baby brougham with all the tacky goodness in the interior, with the quiet soft ride in a smaller package, and the bizzare bustleback trunk. I especially loved the stuffy Cougar sedan given to me, so I know I would probably really like this. I have come close to buying one several years ago, but the deal fell through at the last moment.
GM made baby broughams during this time as well, and they were tacky old people’s cars back then, but today, are rather intriguing. There is something to the common claim that it was a mistake to chase after German and Japanese brands in the long run for Oldsmobile, Lincoln, Mercury, Buick and Cadillac. There frankly is nothing wrong with having a overstuffed sofa car as long as it doesn’t handle like one.
We can’t alway predict icons, and there was a wild possibility that had traditional luxury kept up with engineering, these brougham rides couldn’t have become iconic brands today.
Great observations. You’ve sold me on reexamining the things I like about that early wave of downsized U.S. luxury cars of that period of the early to mid ’80s. I’m now thinking about my grandparents’ sensibly-sized Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue, stuffed with all the button-tufted velour and simulated wood that could be stuffed into its roomy cabin, as the air blew ice-cold. All the luxury in a smaller package. That’s what I imagined also appealed with these Lincolns.
I never noticed before, but those sideview mirrors are telling a story: pasty Ford beancounters and product planners and manufacturing engineers, and the one hapless designer they allowed in. All lookin’ even more zombielike under the overdue fluorescent lights in a dank, dreary conference room well past its prime—permanently grotty and reeking of stale smoke. The designer unveils a rendering of this sideview mirror on an easel. After the laughter has died down, and then the rattly coughing fits, and then the lighter-flicks, this:
Product planner 1: “Everybody’s a comedian! We’re not doing that. Use the one we’ve been putting on Lincolns since ’74 or ’75.”
Product planner 2: “Yeah, what are you thinking? We’re going to use the existing Lincoln mirror.”
Designer: “Well, I…it’s just…we had been wanting something a little bit more aerodynamic, and”
(more laughter, more rattly coughing fits)
Product planner 1: “We’re not doing that. You already got an additional degree and a half of backsweep to the top of the horsecollar, and you’re lucky we gave that to you after that timewasting stunt you pulled, that proposal for composite headlamps. We said you could play with a nod to aerodynamics. That’s what we meant. You had a ‘budget’ for aero touches. You ‘spent’ it on the grille. We’re using the regular mirror.”
Product planner 2: “Yeah, you’re really pushing your luck after we let you sweep back the top of the grille like that. And did you really think you were going to get approval for aero headlamps? BZZZT! Not gonna happen!”
Beancounter 1, starting from mid-snore: “Budget? This new mirror proposal costs out at 3.4¢ less than the regular mirror.”
(indistinct noises of approval, more rattly coughing fits, more lighter flicks)
Beancounter 2: “Nice unit cost reduction there, but it doesn’t account for tooling. The regular mirror is already tooled up.”
Manufacturing engineer: “Welllllll aaaaaactuallyyyyy…the tooling wore out two years ago. The mirrors have been pretty crappy; it’s well past due for retool.”
Beancounter 2: “Oh, brother; here we go again. »smarmy mocking tone« ‘Eeeeeeeee! This tooling is out of spec by three whole, entire sixteenths of an inch, eeeeeee! We need more money to buy a new tool, eeeeeee!'”
Beancounter 1: “Well, now wait a minute. What’s the reject rate on the mirrors coming off the »airquotes« ‘worn out’ tooling?”
Manufacturing engineer, shuffling papers: “Ahhhhh…trending upward. Six months ago it was 31 per cent; four months ago it was 44 per cent; two months ago 49 per cent, and last month it was either 53 or 66 per cent, depending on if we count that incident where the…”
Product planner 1: “Sh-sh! No.”
Product planner 2: “Yeah, we don’t count that; end of discussion.”
Beancounter 1: “Well, if the tooling really is »airquotes« ‘worn out’, then it starts to look like a wash whether we tool for the new mirror or retool for the regular one.”
Product planner 1: “What part of ‘no’ is hard to understand?”
Product planner 2: “Yeah, what part of ‘no’ do you not understand?”
Beancounter 2: “I’ve just done the math here, just back-of-the-envelope, and with the 3.4¢ piece-cost savings and the tooling at a wash, I would have to approve the new mirror.”
Product planner 1: “Dammit, I said no! We’re using the regular mirror, and that’s final!”
Product planner 2: “Yeah, that’s final!”
Beancounter 1: “I’m approving the new mirror, and that’s final.
Beancounter 2: “I’m seconding the approval. And PP1, if you try to do another end-run around us? Like that time with the door lock knob? I will end you. Since we’re talking about final.
Product planner 2: “I said no, too!”
Beancounter 1: “Alright, designer, you got your mirror. Don’t let it go to your head. For your sake, I hope you know what the hell you’re doing.”
Product planner 2: “Hey…! Aw, dammit all…” »swigs deeply from from a bottle of Maalox, twice; lights another cigarette«
(indistinct chatter, rattly coughs, lighter flicks as everyone files out the room, leaving only the buzzing fluorescent lights)
Priceless. I just watched this entire episode in my head. Thank you.
»bows, doffs cap«
First thing I noticed. At least you could piece together a set of regular old sealed beams (avoiding the current production Chinese gahhbage) that would put enough light on the road to (mostly) see, for not a lot of money. I’m guessing that it might be a bit tougher and expensive-er to try and locate replacement composites of that era.
Edit: Oof! This reply was supposed to go under your reply to Jeff Sun with respect to the condition of the headlamps on our subject car.
I’ve never paid much attention to the mirrors on these cars, but yeah, those are akin to putting more sauce on last week’s dried out leftover spaghetti, then trying to pass it off as fresh made.
Perhaps it was best they held off on applying Ford’s cost-is-every-object composite headlamps… Which setup performed least poorly? That is, before the auto-darkening Sylvanias lost their reflectors, and Ford’s 9004 miracle suffered from terminal cataracts.